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The Edmonton Oilers are doing a lot of losing again — again or still, take your pick — but they refuse to believe that this year’s losing team has anything common with all those losers in the past.

The results might suggest the 1-5-1 Oilers are the same old disappointment they’ve always been, but the ghosts of failures past haven’t made their way into the dressing room.

The players truly believe they won’t be losers very much longer, that they’re on the verge of turning it around for good.

“I remember playing Columbus last year at about the 20-game mark and they were a team that was well below .500 but you could tell they were a team that was playing well and about to make a charge,” said winger Taylor Hall.

“I feel like we’re on that verge. We’re sticking with teams that have a lot of skill and we’re working just as hard as them. I have a different feel with this group.”

They all do. They know more than anybody what a bad team looks like and they don’t see it in this year’s room.

“As hard as it is to see and as hard as it is to believe, I strongly believe that we’re playing better than we were last year,” said winger Jordan Eberle. “We’re out-shooting opponents, we’re out-chancing opponents, we’re out-playing opponents, but the wins aren’t coming.

“That’s when you start to doubt yourself, and we can’t have that. You can’t have that doubt that the system doesn’t work because it does, and I have full confidence that we’re going to start winning and it’s going to come in bunches.”

You’ll get a slightly different take in the comments section of just about any Oilers-related story lately. Edmonton is understandably tired of losing, no matter what those losses look like, so there aren’t many fans who share the players view of the situation.

“It’s really hard to stay positive, especially with a market like Edmonton that’s really hungry for a winning team,” said Hall.

“You don’t really want to pay attention to what everybody else is saying.

“We’ve played hockey for so long that when you’re on the bench you can see if we’re playing well and doing the right things. We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing but the pucks just aren’t going in. We’re getting some bad bounces in our end.

“But all you can do is stick to the program if you believe in what you’re doing.”

And they do.

“In the past three years there have been a lot of losses where, after the game, you’re thinking we weren’t even close to winning that game,” said Hall. “We’ve been in every game this year, been just a break or two away from blowing things open. We just have to keep working for those opportunities.”

The easiest way to convince their critics that things are heading up, not down, would be to start winning, of course. And soon, because the Oilers aren’t more than four or five more well-played losses away from being in a hole that will be very difficult to crawl out of.

“There’s definitely a point where you need to start getting points or it’s going to really escalate,” said Hall, referring to the turbulence that always accompanies a losing record. “We don’t want it to get to the point where guys get off track and stop believing in what we’re doing.”

These things usually go one of two ways: either the well played losses turn into wins, or they turn into poorly played losses.

“That’s not going to happen,” Eberle said of another lost season. “I have full confidence that we’re going to start winning and we’re going to start winning lots.

As bad as their record is, the 1-5-1 Edmonton Oilers say they're on the verge of turning the season around

The Edmonton Oilers are doing a lot of losing again — again or still, take your pick — but they refuse to believe that this year’s losing team has anything common with all those losers in the past.

The results might suggest the 1-5-1 Oilers are the same old disappointment they’ve always been, but the ghosts of failures past haven’t made their way into the dressing room.

The players truly believe they won’t be losers very much longer, that they’re on the verge of turning it around for good.

“I remember playing Columbus last year at about the 20-game mark and they were a team that was well below .500 but you could tell they were a team that was playing well and about to make a charge,” said winger Taylor Hall.

“I feel like we’re on that verge. We’re sticking with teams that have a lot of skill and we’re working just as hard as them. I have a different feel with this group.”

They all do. They know more than anybody what a bad team looks like and they don’t